T U ES DAY, F EB RUA RY 2, 2016
Whitewashing celebrities
Spotlight on Raves making kandi...
OPINIONS page 5
... and beaded masks...
FEATURES pages 6 & 7
VOLUME 57 NO. 4
Flipside page 12
On Pointe: student commits to full-time ballet schedule
Diagnosis: Senioritis
Sports page 10
The Prospector Tino Dhadkan
CHSPROSPECTOR.COM
Student Newspaper of Cupertino High School
10100 FINCH AVENUE, CUPERTINO, CA 95014
Just one year after its founding, the school’s Bollywood fusion dance team hosts own show SAAGAR SANGHAVI opinions assistant
ALEX SHIEH online assistant
COURTESY OF SD PHOTOGRAPHY
Among the numerous student groups that exist on campus, Tino Dhadkan recently gained momentum as it ascended the stage at its first show, Dil Se. As a bollywood fusion dance club, Tino Dhadkan strives to provide students with an opportunity to experience creative, cultural, and competitive dancing. Despite being its first year as a club, Tino Dhadkan is already soaring to new heights, having performed well at multiple large-scale shows and now preparing to host its own show at school. The Hindi word “dhadkan,” meaning “heartbeat,” symbolizes the rhythm and movement of the dancers in a unique style that combines traditional and modern pop culture. “We started the team because there were a lot of Indians [in our community], but I did not feel like there was a place or an opportunity where we could bond together,” senior and copresident Vaibhav Vijaykar said. “We do this through cultural dance, and I think that it definitely attributes to how we perceive Indian culture and heritage.” The Indian Culture Appreciation Association (ICAA), the circuit that Dhadkan participates in, holds multiple showcases annually, which display teams from around the Bay Area. All the proceeds collected from ticket sales support the India Literacy Project. In order to make the performances as flawless as possible, the team meets up once a week to practice. However, in times when a showcase is approaching, the team rehearses daily. “Practices include teaching the choreography, staging, and cleaning, which is making sure everyone is good in all the details,” senior and varsity choreographer Poonam Varkhedi said. “And we eat oranges. It is a tradition.” Driven by their passion for heritage and competitive spirit, everyone on the team works intensively to strive for perfection. “[Even as a new team,] we are able to be accepted into many of the large showcases,” senior and co-president Janany Subra said. “This just goes to show how much work our team has put into our performances and how much respect we have for our own culture.”
Tino Dhadkan, continued on page 2
Dil Se | Senior Poonam Varkhedi and sophomore Varsha Varkhedi choreographed a dance the team performed at the Dil Se Indian dance competition at Irvington High School
Obama unveils gun control executive order
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JAY SHROFF online editor
ETHAN QI news assistant
On Jan. 5, President Barack Obama addressed the nation at a town hall event, calling for tighter background checks, gun restrictions, and the enforcement of existing laws concerning gun protection by passing an executive action in an effort to curb the amount of gun violence in the United States. The President’s action comes after the tragic shooting at a holiday party in San Bernadino, in which 22 people were killed and many others wounded. In 2013, following the Sandy Hook shootings, Congress rejected a bill that would have installed the more stringent background checks on firearm sales that this executive action puts into place. For the first time on camera, Obama shed tears when talking about the mass shooting at Newtown, Connecticut. “We know we cannot stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world,” he said. “But maybe we could try to stop one act of evil, one act of violence.”
President Obama’s plan includes background checks for any entity selling or purchasing a gun in an attempt to close the “gun show loophole.” Said senior Kevin Li, “Obama is taking a step in the right direction because there are many flaws in the industry, such as the gun show loophole.” Previously, the loophole allowed small gun sellers at expositions or other gun events to sell guns to buyers without completing the required background check for gun-buyers. At the same time, the executive action will make a list of people who cannot own guns, and similar to a “no-fly” list, will be distributed to all gun-sellers in the U.S. Anyone on the list who attempts to buy a gun will be denied purchase. In addition to expanding background checks, Obama said his administration hopes to provide more funding for mental health treatments, FBI staffers, and agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives. This would allow for greater enforcement of the regulations that are placed on gun stores and shows and provide more stringent background checks on people that may be a threat with guns. In California, gun control laws are among the strictest in
Gun action, continued on page 2
Ethan Shen becomes Intel STS semifinalist
COURTESY OF ETHAN SHEN
THE HELM OF DISCOVERY | Ethan works in Stanford University’s Helms Lab
CAROLINE GEE flipside assistant
On Jan. 6, senior Ethan Shen was named a semi-finalist in the 2016 Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS) for his research on stem cell regeneration. Shen was one of the 300 semifinalists selected from a pool of more than 1,750 applicants from 512 high schools across the United States, Puerto Rico, and overseas international high schools. The Intel STS 2016, dubbed the “Nobel Prize” of high school students, is considered as one of the most prestigious science competitions in the world. Conducting his research at Stanford University, Shen discovered that a certain type of stem cell previously unknown to the scientific
Intel STS, continued on page 2